| Chapter 5
“Duck!” Valerie said, racing past Ron with the tall metal door of a locker clutched in her hands. She had ripped it off and ran with it towards the robot. Ernie pulled his head down as Valerie took a huge leaping swing, slamming the locker door into the robot’s head. The robot fell sending Ernie sprawling to the floor scrambling away from its grip. Valerie stood over it, smashing the door against its head until there was a gash the size of a bowling ball. It stopped moving and its glowing eyes flickered out.
Ernie jumped up, “I thank you once again. Time to go. Remember act natural.”
“Wait,” Valerie said, “can’t we just wait a second? I can’t just put on a smile after that.”
“I’m sorry Valerie, but we need to move now,” Ron said.
Ron walked over to Valerie and put his hand on her shoulder.
“It’ll be okay.”
She didn’t pull away like he was expecting, but leaned in closer into him. The smell of her hair like a fruity shampoo was heaven to him and he lost track of everything but her head against his shoulder.
“I’m serious guys we need to move now,” Ernie said.
He splashed a calm look on his face and walked past them to the doorway. Valerie dropped the twisted locker door and looked up at Ron. He looked for her smile, like the one she always gave him when she put her muffin and coffee on the countertop. She wasn’t smiling. He tried coaxing her with a smile of his own but it was forced. She tried smiling back but it wasn’t the same. Ron hoped he would get to see her real smile again. She dropped her gaze to the floor, combed a hand through her hair, and headed to the door behind Ernie. Ron followed looking down at the massive robot with a crescent moon for a head as he stepping around it.
They headed left and continued down the hall further away from the jail cells. Ron looked inside the windows and saw that no one was paying any attention to them, but it didn’t help him feel any less nervous. They came to a door, Ernie used the key card from the man taped up in the supply closet, and it slid open. He walked in, grabbed a clipboard from a hook on the wall inside, and motioned for Ron and Valerie to follow him with one hand as he jotted something down. Ron couldn’t believe how Ernie could look so calm. He really looked preoccupied with his clipboard as he lead them further into the facility. They passed by the busy scientists and not one of them looked up. Ron felt like the doorway at the back of the enormous room was miles away. As soon as he passed by a scientist he could swear he felt their eyes on him, burning a hole into his back.
He walked into the hall behind Valerie. Once they neared the end of the hallway Ron could smell food and coffee coming from the next room. The hallway opened up into a massive cafeteria filled with tables and lined with food dispensing machines. Ron thought he counted thirty different machines. A few scientists were scattered throughout, eating and chatting at tables or getting food from the machines, but they didn’t seem to think anything of the old man and two kids walking in. Then a scientist at a table looked up from his food and saw them. He waved them over.
“Remember, act natural,” Ernie said.
He turned walking casually towards the scientist with a warm smile creasing his face.
“These must be our new interns,” the man said.
“Uh, yes.”
Ernie glanced at the man’s name tag.
“I was just giving them a tour of our facility Dr. Nangrum.”
“I see. Well, that’s great and all but I need their assistance right now. They can finish the tour later. I’m sure that’s okay with you isn’t it Dr. ah, I’m sorry your face is familiar to me your name has just slipped my mind.”
Ernie looked down as if surprised to see no name tag attached to his pocket.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I must have left my badge in my locker. My name is Dr. Timothy Ward.”
“Yes, Dr. Ward will that be alright if I grab them from you? We have a lot of tests to run and I need eyeballs to watch as the results print out on the screen to spot any abnormalities.”
“Usually they get the tour first and,”
“Yes but with all that’s been going on lately I’m sure you can understand we need all the help we can get. I worked through most of last night and just got up from a nap to put something in my stomach and get back to the lab.”
“Well, I’ll just give them a condensed version of the tour then and we’ll let you finish your breakfast.”
“Oh that’s alright, I’m done.”
Ernie looked down at his plate and frowned. It still had a pile of scrambled eggs three pieces of toast and one and a half pancakes left on it.
“I see. Well, I suppose you could just wait a few more minutes so I can at least show them how this all works so they can snag some breakfast for themselves once they have a quick break? We were going to eat breakfast in here at the end of the tour.”
“What’s there to show? Grab a tray, take what you like from the machines, and chow down. I suppose I could eat a bit more while you three grab breakfast. Come on back to the table once you’ve filled your plate so I can brief them on what I need their help with today.”
“Thank you doctor. We’ll be right back.”
Ernie lead them towards the food dispensaries.
“This is not good. We’re so close. My living quarters are just down that hall.”
“Why don’t we just go there and get out of here?” Ron said grabbing a bagel and pouring himself up a couple bowls of Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal.
Ernie stood a little stunned at his selection, and said, “No, we can’t. We’re lucky he doesn’t realize he recognizes me because I’m the janitor. He’ll sound the alarm as soon as he realizes and then the facility will be on lockdown and we won’t be able to get up to my truck in the garage.”
“Okay, so what do we do?” Valerie asked as she plopped a bran muffin and a banana onto her plate.
“Maybe we’ll be fine. It’s just intern stuff he needs us to do right? I’m pretty good with computers. How hard could it be? We just have to watch a screen.” Ron said pouring two percent into his cereal bowls.
“What if he asks you about it?” Ron said. He settled for a turkey sandwich, some chips and a large soda.
“Then I’ll make stuff up, or he’ll think we’re crappy interns.”
“We’ll make it work,” Valerie said grabbing Ron’s arm.
Ron’s world became a warm and bright place with her touch. Everything seemed possible with her by his side.
“We just need to tough it out until he lets us go on a break or we can slip away, then we’ll meet up and get out of here,” Ron said.
“I guess we don't really have a choice. I'll hang out in here, and try to act casual. Is that really all you’re going to eat?"
“Yeah man, I haven’t had this stuff in years! It’s too expensive.”
They took their trays full of food over to the table and joined the professor.
“So what do you guys think? Pretty nice facility huh?”
“I couldn’t tell you sir, we haven’t seen much yet, but the fact that you guys have Fruity Pebbles makes me glad I signed on.” Ron said just before stuffing his face with a sugary rainbow of colors.
“How long will you be needing them? I feel bad they haven’t seen much yet. I just assigned them a locker and then we came here.”
“Well, we’ll probably be needing them all day. We’re in a difficult situation right now and it needs all our attention. The tour can wait.”
After that everyone silently gobbled up their food.
“Well if you guys have had enough, I’d like to get back to the lab now.”
Ron slurped the last of his now off white milk and put his bowl down.
“I’m ready,” he said.
Valerie’s plate was clear and she got out of her chair, standing close to Ron. He could tell she was scared.
“We’ll see you later then,” Ernie said, giving them a solemn look.
Ron and Valerie followed the scientist back towards the labs. The came into a large room full of equipment, and were lead to a station with two computer monitors.
“Okay, this is the data stream, spooling off the results from various tests we’re running. I want you to look for any abnormalities. Stuff you didn’t see in your textbooks in school. So, just start it up again and each grab a monitor. That’s it, alright?”
“No problem sir. We’ll let you know.”
Ron jumped on the computer and navigated through the program to start it over with ease. The two monitor screens blinked and then started running their data down the screen again. Valerie’s name was at the top of the screen.
“Why is my name on here?”
“I think the computer is analysing the blood samples they took from you. Just keep looking at the screen like you’re reading everything it says.”
“Ok.”
Ron watched the screen for a minute, and then looked over at the scientist. He was busy. Ron reached forward and tapped some keys opening up a new window on his monitor.
“What are you doing?” Valerie said.
“Trying to find out where they keep the guns around here. I feel powerless against those robots. I can’t just sit here and let you do all the fighting. Besides, I can tell you don’t want to. Well I do, and if I had some guns I could.”
“What if he sees what you’re doing.”
“I’ve been watching him. He hasn’t looked over here once. He’s totally distracted with his work. I don’t want you to have to save me again, that’s just not right.”
“Thanks Ron, that’s really sweet and you’re right I don’t want to fight, but this seems like a risk we don’t need to take. Like you said, we wait until we get a break or he leaves, then we go meet up with Ernie and get out of here.”
“I don’t want to run into something like that robot again and be unprepared, that’s all. I think we could be here for a while and sooner or later someone is going to realize that we’re still in here somewhere and run out of hiding places we could be in. We could get discovered here before we even get a chance to run off and meet with Ernie. I’m not going to take that chance. I’m getting some guns.”
Valerie didn’t say anything. She looked back at the scientist, and shifted her feet.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. Eyes on the screen in case he does look over here.”
“Okay. I hope you know what you’re doing. I really just think we should... ”
“There we go. Okay, there’s a small armory locker not far from here.”
“So what we’re just going to waltz over there and somehow get into this thing?”
“I’m working on it.”
“What’s so funny.”
“Nothing. You’re just really cute when you talk like that.”
Valerie blushed.
“I don’t know how you can laugh at a time like this.”
Her vulnerability made Ron want to be brave for her, and the whole fake it until you make it thing was somehow working. He was always so nervous around her but the extraordinary circumstances made all of that seem small now. He knew she was drawn to him now because he was the only familiar thing she had in the dark underground prison they needed to escape, but he was okay with that. He noticed a small supply of flashlights on a nearby desk. He looked over at the scientist who brought them in. Still busy. Ron slid over to the desk with quick long steps and grabbed the flashlights, tucking them securely into the bountiful pockets of the stolen lab coat hanging from his shoulders. He walked back to Valerie and started using the computer again.
“What was that about?”
“We’re going to need light.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I’m going to cut the power so we can sneak over to the armory and get some guns.”
“I am not running through this place in the dark. It’s creepy enough as it is.”
“I’ll be with you the whole time, holding your hand.”
“This isn’t all just some elaborate plan to hold my hand is it? Because you could have just asked.”
“Really? Um, no I really need those guns. Holding your hand is just an extra bonus to my plan. Sorry about the dark thing, but I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Yeah, you’ve been real helpful in that, oh no here he comes!”
“Look at the other screen,” Ron said.
“Oh yeah, thanks.”
He closed the window he was working in just as the scientist came over from his work to check on them. He reached over to the keyboard in front of Ron and stopped the scrolling text on their screens.
“Well, have either of you found anything yet?”
“No sir. We will be sure to let you know just as soon as we see anything,” Ron said.
The scientist looked over at Valerie.
“That’s right, nothing to report yet but we will notify you sir.”
“Okay great. If I happen to leave, you can always reach me on that phone behind you. My extension is listed. I want to know right away, even if you’re not sure you’ve found something or you have to interrupt what I’m doing. We’ve been through the main things, but we want to check absolutely everything and that’s where you two come in.”
“Got it. We’ll let you know,” Ron said.
The scientist nodded, started the data crawl on the screens again, and walked back to the other side of the lab quickly falling back into his work.
“I think I’m going to be sick. I can’t take all this,” Valerie said.
“Yeah I’m ready to be done too. I’m serious, just hold my hand and follow me. Here take a flashlight.”
Ron slid one of the huge things out of his massive lab coat pocket and handed it to Valerie. Then he went back to typing on the computer. Valerie could barely make out the things he mumbled as his fingers flew across the keys.
“Back up generator failure alarm deactivated. Back up generator start time delayed for 10 minutes.”
He kept working until a button on his screen was flashing, and he seemed to be done. He took out the other flashlight, and then pressed a key on the computer.
The lights went out.
Ron felt Valerie grab his arm tight and then her hand sliding down to meet his. He wrapped his fingers around hers, flipped on his flashlight, and ran for the door.